Both languages suck. I would pick C++ as it is more future proof and less niche than Objective-C.

I mostly program in Python or C though. Sometimes Java. I hate C++. C++ is the Swiss Army knife of compiled languages. It does a bit of everything but nothing well. You can always find another language that is better at it on every single aspect you look at. Jack of all trades master of none.

That post on Nim a couple of days back on Slashdot was interesting but I haven't tried the language yet.

...so I give you a bag of seeds labelled "fwqnuiohuio", but don't tell you it's a plant that won't do very well outside of a warm-to-semi-tropical region, the plant fruits are underground but the plant itself is otherwise useless for food, it requires a *lot* of water during the latter phase of fruiting else you've wasted your time, and oh - it stands a great chance of giving a not-insignificant percentage of folks who eat the results a nasty case of anaphylactic shock.

Maybe cultural memories would help them recognize what a peanut is? Not sure if it'd help them know how to grow the things...

I blame Beta.

Because they didn't sign it.

Saying: "everyone who has them except Israel is allowed to keep them" is just plain wrong.

Which just might be why they didn't sign on - and part of why "Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its nuclear weapons program."

Some things to remember about the NNPT:
  - Not every country in the world is a signatory.
  - Even signatories didn't permanently give up their right to develop nuclear weapons: By the treaty's own terms (section X(1)), they can drop out on three month's notice:

Article X

1. Each Party shall in exercising its national sovereignty have the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country. It shall give notice of such withdrawal to all other Parties to the Treaty and to the United Nations Security Council three months in advance. Such notice shall include a statement of the extraordinary events it regards as having jeopardized its supreme interests.

It's similar to the trick where you stare at a B&W pattern on a page then look at the wall to see the inverse of it.

Of if you wear tinted sunglasses the world looks (insert color) at first then a while later you don't notice. When you take the glasses off things look...well brighter...but the colors are a bit odd for a few minutes there too.

Or the bunch of other optical illusions where you surround a color with others and it looks different.

It's not some great big mystery for anyone who works with photography (or anything similar that deals with lighting and color). That's why monitors are calibrated to certain colors and brightness otherwise you'd never get consistency. It's why artists draw/paint/etc. under specific lighting. It's why you put makeup on in front of lit mirror with a certain color bulb. It's why home depot sells warm, natural, and cool colored lights. etc etc etc

I can't believe people are actually making a big deal about this.

It's 'use it or lose it'.

Somehow the grid copes with it. It's a solved problem.

Yep. It's solved with CTs (Combustion Turbines). Basically jet engines hooked to generators. The lowest efficiency power plants still running.

They used to be able to ramp with hydro, but that's now very limited. You simply can't put walls of water down rivers on a daily basis. The only hydro that still ramps without control are dams that cascade right into another lake.

BTW these tidal generators already have very little head (not /. 'very little head', water level differences) delaying an hour or two will kill the economics.

'Criminal activities that make it so' like civil rights protests and political demonstrations and gatherings?

You must share the government's views on what it would like to consider 'criminal' (basically anything it doesn't like, makes it look bad, limits government power, or interferes with the ability to confiscate and redistribute wealth as it sees fit).

Strat

On a more reality-based note...

How in the hell are the survivors (who would be practically random) going to know...

1) that such a thing exists
2) where (exactly) it is
3) how to get there (and back) without dying of something in the process (exposure, starvation, ocean storms, etc)
4) (assuming generations later) how to read the content labels, instructions, etc ...?

It's a nice gesture and all for nearly any other scenario, but a *lot* of assumptions would have to be made for this to be viable in a no-shit doomsday scenario. At one point in human prehistory, it was estimated that a small extinction event reduced us to around 100k people, globally. That's a pretty scattered dispersion, and assuming a similar number of survivors in some future doomsday scenario, the odds are almost lottery-sized against putting it to use.

I'm not saying they should give up (far from it, actually) - I just think that maybe, just maybe they should expand on the idea a bit, and consider a few factors that seem awfully important when planning for a global doomsday scenario.

Inside the ball or outside doesn't really change the problem. The ball will be too massive to move when you move your feet. You'd need to put strain gauges on the surface or in your shoes and motorize the ball to move with your feet.

You'd be better off with 'roller ball' skates or just sticking to slippery floor and socks.

...the same "nearby military rival" that Iran has repeatedly threatened to wipe out of existence. If anything, it's a huge argument against ever letting Iran get hold of the effing things.